by Ophelia Bell
Hallie’s stomach fluttered at the sensation of Kol’s fingertips tracing the length of her spine. “I can’t say I’m particularly upset on that count.”
“No regrets here, either,” Erika replied.
They parted ways on the landing at the second floor, heading to doors at the opposite ends of the hall. Hallie and Erika parted with a goodnight and a peck on the lips. Hallie watched, amused, when Geva hesitated with a meaningful look at Kol.
“I’m not kissing you goodnight,” Kol said. “As a matter of fact, unless you’re utterly depleted of power, I’m not likely to touch you again, if that’s alright with you.”
Geva gave him a wide grin. “Suit yourself. You don’t know what you’re missing.”
A few moments later Hallie relaxed naked on their bed, watching Kol undress. “After all that’s happened today, you don’t have at least a small urge to find another mate to mark? Someone to share?”
Kol’s brows drew together and he slowed his movements, deliberately meeting her gaze while he shed his trousers and boxers. He was ready for her again, and not shy about it. He was never shy about it, but seemed almost irritatingly overconfident now.
“You are more than enough for me. Am I enough for you?” He slid into bed beside her, bending his head to capture one nipple and suck it between his lips.
“Oh, yes. Absolutely,” she sighed. She sank back against her pillows, letting him pleasure her, and enjoying the hum of energy that passed between them when they climaxed together. She needed nothing more in her life but him and the promise of what they would share in the future.
***
The necessary delay in delivery of the Verdanith resulted in a welcome interlude for Hallie and Kol. She enjoyed the relaxing solitude of Erika’s estate, so peaceful compared to the busy day-to-day their lives in Los Angeles had become. In spite of his assurance that she didn’t need to work, she’d insisted on it, taking on the role of vetting new employees.
Now, Kol was more relaxed than she’d ever seen him, which only amplified the sense that she should enjoy their brief rest while she could because it would end as soon as they got the call that Geva’s sister had been found. As much as she hoped for the reunion of the lost dragon with Rafe and Geva, she didn’t look forward to the end of their idyllic vacation.
It ended prematurely when Kol received a call from the local Shadow and left the estate to deal with some unspoken business. He only said it was a potential client before kissing her goodbye, straightening his suit, and climbing into the hired car to drive into the city.
“We’re heading to lunch,” Erika called out the French doors to the pool where Hallie had been dozing on a chaise lounge, half dreaming, half fantasizing about holding a soft, warm bundle in her arms. One with dark, silver-flecked eyes and a shock of downy black hair. She blinked dazedly at her friend.
“Come with us?” Erika said.
Hallie nodded, relishing the idea of friendly company for the afternoon. She’d begun feeling a lonely longing for Kol that the baby dreams weren’t helping alleviate. She looked forward to the distraction.
After a sunny drive they ended up back at Erika’s favorite cafe, sipping wine and munching on bread.
“How much do you know about your sister?” Hallie ventured to Geva during a lull in their conversation.
The red dragon’s expression shadowed briefly, before breaking into a wan smile. “Not much, I’m afraid. My parents—and her father—gave their lives to hide her. All I know is her first name and her bloodline.”
“So, she’s…” she paused, wary of speaking the word in public.
“Purebred. Yes,” Geva said in a low voice. “Which means she would be very powerful.” His chest seemed to puff a little with pride. “Not surprising it’s taken this long to find her.”
“I’m surprised you’re not out looking along with the others. I know if I hadn’t checked in with my brothers after I left, they’d have come after me.”
A grimace that signaled his regret crossed his face. “I would have, had I known at the start. It’s too late for me to begin wandering aimlessly now, but you can be sure once they’ve located her, that’s where I will be going.” He turned to look at Erika. “You’ll come with me, won’t you?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Erika said.
Hallie observed the pair’s exchange, yet again amazed at the constantly shifting dynamic between the dragons and their environment. Whether it was their mates or each other they interacted with, they were so changeable. She thought about Kol and the command he so easily took with anyone but her. She’d asked him about it the day before. His reply was simply, “You will be the mother of my children. As such, I am yours to command.”
That was when it had occurred to her what the role of mother meant to them. Mothers were sacred to his race, and for good reason if it was such an ordeal for them to even conceive a child. The Verdanith would make it easier to conceive, Kol had explained, but what followed might not be an ideal pregnancy by human standards. Most human women had few issues—no more than they would if they carried a human child. But he explained that the female dragons frequently had difficult pregnancies. Yet Hallie knew how much the dragon females of the Court desired to conceive as much as she did. At least Racha and Aurin had expressed as much to her. Halie hadn’t spoken to Issa since the ritual. Nobody had.
Hallie finished her wine, emptied the last of the bottle into her glass, and sat back to enjoy the waning afternoon. Feeling just a little like a third wheel in the face of Geva’s whispers to Erika that were causing her friend to actually blush, Hallie excused herself from the table to visit the restroom. She was pleasantly buzzed and happy, her mind flitting back and forth between memories of the past week and hopes for the future once the dragons got their politics sorted out and she and Kol could start trying to get pregnant in earnest.
A large figure stood in the dim walk-through hallway outside the restroom when she exited. He was silhouetted before the open back door of the restaurant that led to a second dining patio, his features cast in shadow. All Hallie registered at first was another patron waiting for the restroom. Just a second too late, a whiff of cologne hit her nose and made her gut clench with recognition. She hurried to keep walking, hoping he hadn’t seen her but knowing full well she was the sole reason for his presence.
“Welcome home, lover,” a familiar deep voice said, so close that the cologne became a cloying unpleasant miasma. She remembered a time when she’d loved that scent, but that had been a long time ago.
Hallie tensed and stopped in her tracks. Her skin grew ice-cold, goose flesh rising up instantly. A rush of sick fear seeped into her belly, causing her vision to pinch and grow dark with panic. She was abstractly grateful that she’d just emptied her bladder.
“David,” she said in a small voice, hating herself for how meek she sounded. She’d survived the bastard and escaped. He couldn’t touch her now. She was protected.
Except Kol wasn’t here. Hallie stared helplessly through the cafe to where Geva and Erika were sitting, nuzzling each other at their table.
“I missed you,” he said, his voice now close enough that she could feel his breath against her ear. The touch of his fingertip on her skin caused her to flinch.
Hallie shivered and blinked, finally regaining her bearings enough to move. She managed only a step before his unforgiving grip clamped like a vise around her upper arm, forcing her to swing around to face him.
“Don’t think you’re going to get away from me again, Hallie. You are mine and you are coming home.”
“No.” She tried to force the word out but it only came as a hoarse whimper. She tried harder, tried to think. Erika and Geva could help if she could just get to them. The clutch on her arm tightened, his fingertips digging in brutally. She made a fist with her free hand and swung it around to punch him, but he dodged in time a
nd her knuckles only glanced off the side of his neck. He caught her fist in his free hand and held her tight.
“Let me go!” she yelled, finally finding her voice. She turned and yelled toward the dining room of the restaurant, just hoping her voice would carry to the patio beyond where the others sat. “Erika! Geva!” But the pair were too absorbed in their own little world to hear.
David wrapped an arm around her waist, still holding her arm tightly with one hand. She dug her feet in, raising one heel to smash the top of his foot, but he dodged again. Her brothers had taught her to fight early on, but no amount of fore-knowledge could counter a man who knew how to fight as well as David did, and who had the muscular bulk and a killer’s instinct to back up that knowledge. What David wanted, David had always gotten. Except for her.
There was no use struggling. She just had to hope Kol knew where to find the asshole once Erika realized she was missing. She walked slowly, trying not to stumble when he pushed her forward toward the alley around the side of the restaurant where a sleek town car waited.
She slid into the confines of David’s car, silent and grim.
“That’s my girl,” David said. “How about a kiss hello?’
“You touch me, I will bite your fucking tongue off,” she gritted through her teeth.
“I’ve been fantastic,” he said, not missing a beat. “How have you been, baby? Had a few little adventures, I take it? You are a clever one. Put on a good chase—so good I was sure I’d lost you. But here you are, right back where you belong. It’s fate, I think. Destiny. Destiny brought you back to me, baby. And destiny will make you stay.”
She turned to glare at him then, meeting his shrewd, pale blue eyes with a withering stare. “You have no fucking idea what that word even means.”
David shook his perfectly groomed head with its close-cropped dark hair. He’d grown a narrow goatee since she’d last seen him and it only served to make him look more sinister than she remembered, offsetting the cruel set to his jaw even more. “I know it means you belong to me,” he said.
He leaned back slightly in the seat, letting his eyes rove over her. She’d worn one of Kol’s favorite dresses, a strappy summer number that was white with smatterings of black flowers printed on it. He’d always said it offset her blue eyes and sleek brunette hair perfectly. David seemed to appreciate it, as well, his eyebrows arching and his lips quirking in overt appreciation. His eyes narrowed when they rested on the mark that peeked out just above the cleft between her breasts.
“Did sweet little Hallie go and mess up her perfect skin with a tattoo? What the fuck is this?” He reached a hand out, extending fingertips to touch the mark. Hallie avoided looking down but hoped like hell the thing wasn’t glowing like it did whenever she was within about fifty feet of her lover. Just before David’s fingers came into contact with her skin, his eyes widened, then a million things seemed to happen at once.
The car lurched to a stop, throwing Hallie and David against the seat backs in front of them. The driver and David both cursed loudly.
“What the—” David began, glaring at the back of the driver’s head, but he didn’t get the words out before his door was wrenched open and a large hand reached in, grabbed him by the collar, and dragged him out, kicking in protest. Hallie barely managed to avoid getting knocked in the face with one stray Italian-leather loafer.
Her heart pounded at an unreal pace, but began to slow the second she saw the pair of large men staring down at her old lover, daring the bastard to speak.
“Oh, thank God, Kol.”
Geva grabbed David by both arms, restraining him. Kol met David’s defiant gaze with one even more menacing.
Hallie’s door opened behind her and Erika startled her with a squeeze of a hand on Hallie’s shoulder.
“C’mon sweetie. Jesus you scared the crap out of us. Are you all right?”
Halie stumbled out of the car and embraced her friend. “Thank you. How the hell did you guys find me so fast?”
Erika smirked and tapped Hallie’s mark gently. “I guess it’s a little bit of a beacon for them. As soon as we figured out you were missing, we called him.”
They wandered around the rear of the car and paused. Hallie kept expecting Kol to pull back and swing at David—kept hoping that’s what he would do—but all Kol did was stare at the man wordlessly. He glanced once at Geva and a smile stretched across his lips, letting her know the pair were likely having a private conversation about what to do with David. The second she took another step toward Kol, his attention shifted entirely and she was in his arms before either could speak. The desperate kiss he gave her took her breath away, leaving her dazed and her heart pounding harder than it had a moment earlier.
“Are you alright?” he asked. “Did he hurt you?”
Hallie shook her head, “Not really, no. What are you going to do with him?”
“Geva and I were just debating it, but the little shit won’t shut up.”
Hallie would have hardly referred to David as “little” but next to the two dragons, he definitely didn’t measure up. The bastard had always been a talker, though, and didn’t seem to register how doomed he probably was at the moment. He directed his attention to her, in spite of the grip Geva had on his arms.
“You’ve settled for this uptight pussy, Hallie? What happened? You were always a wild girl. That’s what I loved about you. A survivor. That sense of adventure is so goddamn sexy.” He turned his eyes to Kol’s, grinning as though he had a secret. “Did you know she wasn’t a city girl her whole life? Born in the wilderness, she told me. Out in the middle of BFE in Canada. Had to kill her own meat. But she decided she liked the finer things better.” Kol remained stoic, watching David. He already knew all of Hallie’s darkest secrets. There were no surprises. David’s agitation rose. He looked back at Hallie. “I can still give you that, baby. My family’s got ties—anything you want, you tell me and I’ll get it for you. This son-of-a-bitch is small potatoes compared to me.”
Hallie had an answer on the tip of her tongue but before she could get it out, both dragons reacted to something the man had said. Geva jerked the man’s head back sharply, growling a harsh epithet into his ear while Kol stepped swiftly toward him, nailing him in the gut with a fist the size of a sledgehammer.
David doubled over and collapsed to his knees, struggling to catch his breath. Kol squatted and gripped him by the hair, forcing his eyes up.
“I’m watching you, La Pietra. I will know your every single fucking move for the rest of your natural life, and trust me, I will outlive you. If you come near Hallie or our family again, you will wish I had killed you today.”
As he stood, he slipped a small, black card into the breast pocket of David’s jacket. Hallie knew what the card said. It was only a simple monogram on one side—the letter “M”—and on the backside simply “Magnus” followed by a phone number. She’d called the number once after Kol had the cards printed, curious where it led. It was the entry point to contact Kol himself, but was manned by a battleaxe of a receptionist. A female blue dragon who knew everything and wasn’t afraid to rip a caller a new asshole if they said the wrong thing. If a man like David couldn’t figure out who Kol was based on a single call to that number, he was a bigger idiot than she thought.
They left him there, wheezing on the median, and climbed into Erika’s Jeep to drive home.
***
“What the hell made you punch him?” Hallie asked at a stop light a few moments later. “I was sure you guys were making some other devious plan between you. Then all of a sudden it was fists.”
Kol had barely had a chance to calm down after the ordeal. His senses had been heightened since before he’d received Erika’s frantic call. Sitting in the meeting with the East Coast Shadow and the new client had been a waste of time. Two hours into the meeting he’d had an itch in his gut. The same feeling he’d had whe
n Erika’s team had breached the temple. An invasion of his domain. Except this feeling was decidedly unwelcome.
Then the call had come, Erika’s voice frantic on the other end. Hallie had disappeared. The smirk of the human across the table had spurred him into action. With a quick instruction to his lower Shadow to deal with the human, he left to find her.
“He played me, at first,” Kol admitted. “I’m sorry for that. Had I been prepared I’d have been there for you quicker.”
“Baby, you were there. I just want to know what was going through your head back there. Not that I don’t appreciate everything. Call it morbid curiosity.”
Kol cleared his throat. Geva glanced back over the passenger seat he rode in, giving him a grin of solidarity.
“He called me a son-of-a-bitch,” Kol said. “Which is a gross insult to The Mother. We couldn’t let it stand without punishment. Painful punishment.”
Hallie opened her mouth once, then closed it and burst out laughing. “He insulted… oh the poor, poor bastard. I hope he doesn’t meet any other dragons. That’s pretty much his favorite term. I’m curious, though… if he hadn’t said that, what would the punishment have been?”
In unison the two dragons said. “We’d have fucked him.”
“Oh, please don’t tell me that,” Hallie said, she looked up into Kol’s face, searching. He didn’t feel nearly as mirthful as Geva seemed to, however.
He gave her a resigned look. “Geva would have done the honors, and the man would have enjoyed it more than getting punched in the gut. He deserved the humiliation either way.”
When she began to nod slowly, Kol finally relaxed, then bent to kiss the livid bruises on her arm. He should have killed the man, but that would have complicated their visit more than he needed.
That evening they received the call. Roka’s voice was on the other end of Kol’s line, calm and to the point. “We found her. Get to Tokyo as soon as you can…” He seemed to hesitate, then blurted out. “Can you take a commercial flight? There won’t be time to replenish your magic once you get here.”
